Tyler the Enginigger on Nostr: Your antennas can always operate independantly of your radios. It's never a waste to ...
Your antennas can always operate independantly of your radios. It's never a waste to invest in a good antenna system. For mobile, I have used:
N9TAX dual band super-portable antenna weaved through a fiberglass rod
magnetic CB mount that I modified to work as a 2m quarter wave ground plane using coat hangers
ATAS-120 HF/VHF/UHF antenna (my favorite)
The N9TAX was great but the fiberglass rod did not stand up to the wind. The modified CB mount corroded. The ATAS-120 has so-far been great, but it's extremely expensive, but if you can afford it and a Yaesu mobile radio, like the 857D, I'd recommend it absolutely.
CHIRP is fine and all. Bands worth spending money on in my opinion is 2 and 20 meters if that's your 100% commitment.
I have always had Yaesu radios but I do hear good things about kenwoods, mostly as far as their user interface and sometimes features. Yaesu tends to dominate in build quality and reliability. There are zero "made in USA" radios anymore, outside of kits, and even then most electronics components are made overseas.
For home base, it depends :^) I've had good success with an inverted-v, but I also had trees to hang it from.
N9TAX dual band super-portable antenna weaved through a fiberglass rod
magnetic CB mount that I modified to work as a 2m quarter wave ground plane using coat hangers
ATAS-120 HF/VHF/UHF antenna (my favorite)
The N9TAX was great but the fiberglass rod did not stand up to the wind. The modified CB mount corroded. The ATAS-120 has so-far been great, but it's extremely expensive, but if you can afford it and a Yaesu mobile radio, like the 857D, I'd recommend it absolutely.
CHIRP is fine and all. Bands worth spending money on in my opinion is 2 and 20 meters if that's your 100% commitment.
I have always had Yaesu radios but I do hear good things about kenwoods, mostly as far as their user interface and sometimes features. Yaesu tends to dominate in build quality and reliability. There are zero "made in USA" radios anymore, outside of kits, and even then most electronics components are made overseas.
For home base, it depends :^) I've had good success with an inverted-v, but I also had trees to hang it from.